"I think I am the most tired player after practice," Johnson said, "because I have to guard him."

With four days of official Syracuse basketball practice behind them, Johnson and SU's two other freshmen are gaining a growing awareness of what awaits them this fall. College basketball for the Orange rookies starts weeks before the rest of the nation's freshmen go to work because of SU's pending four-game basketball trip to Canada.

Tyler Roberson and Chinonso Obokoh continue to await word from the NCAA Clearinghouse, which needs to release the pair to allow them to practice and play for the Orange. For now, only part of SU's freshman class can participate.

Johnson, the 6-foot-7 wing from Lower Merion (Pa.) High School, officially made his Orange debut last week alongside Ron Patterson, the 6-foot-3 guard from Broad Ripple High School (Ind.) and Brewster Academy (N.H.), and Tyler Ennis, the 6-foot-2 Canadian point guard who played scholastically at St. Benedict's Prep (N.J.).

Trevor Cooney, SU's sophomore guard, said his new teammates have played "great" since the start of practice last Thursday. Cooney was not alone in that assessment:

"I think they're doing well," SU forward Jerami Grant said. "All of them are getting in the gym a lot, just like me and Dajuan (Coleman) did last year. They're just trying to make a push for this season. It's going to be a big season. We're going to need everybody to play."

Ennis, with his distinction as SU's only pure point guard, figures to play considerable minutes this year. Johnson, a reedy teenager who makes Grant's slender physique look thick, has worked out mostly at small forward but occasionally at shooting guard.
Patterson is a shooting guard who gets some work at the point, a position he said he played intermittently in high school. (Duke transfer Michael Gbinije at this point is the likely lead guard reserve.)

Johnson, a left-hander like Fair, said he believes his shooting stroke to be his best basketball attribute. Like every freshman introduced to bigger, stronger, faster, more skilled college players, he cited the speed of the game and the intensity of the workouts as his biggest challenge thus far.

"I think when we first got here it was a little tougher than we expected — I'm talking about the speed during game play," Johnson said. "These four practices, I think we've been getting better. So I think we're adjusting pretty well."

Patterson's biggest adjustment involves his ability to grasp the ever-shifting Orange zone. Few SU freshmen have played more than a sampling of SU's brand of 2-3 zone before arriving on the Syracuse campus.

"Learning the zone and moving with it, that's been tough," Patterson said. "It's the speed of the game, too. It's not the toughness, that has to come from within yourself."

For Johnson, the futility he feels at times while guarding Fair can be assuaged by a) the idea that he will likely face nobody tougher in the ACC this year and b) that Fair is actually a teammate there to help whenever the need arises.

"He just tells me to keep pushing," Johnson said. "If I make a little mistake, he just tells me how to fix it."